Sunday, June 26, 2016

The Crow's Gym Thoughts: Vol. 232

Crow's #Gym Vol. 232
Happy summer folks. It's time for a little extra care in your pre and post workout regimens. First you know the rule, but warm weather means more water with some minerals in it. This doesn't mean you need to grab Gatorade or some other sugary sports drink. Many of the bottled waters add "minerals" to them. Ok they add salt to them (which is what they mean by minerals) and you can add a pinch of sea salt to your sports bottle if you feel the need to retain your workout water. After the workout you should add a shot of glucose to your post workout drink. Yeah, (to misquote Mary Poppins) a spoon full of sugar helps the water stay down.

Gym Term of the Day from The Health Whacko Gym Term Dictionary ..Plates
The flat discs placed on the ends of the barbell and dumbbell bars to increase the weight of the apparatus. Although some plates are made from vinyl - covered concrete, the best and most durable plates are manufactured from metal.

Fly (BowFlex Underhand Incline)Muscles worked: This exercise emphasizes the upper chest muscles (pectoralis major). It also involves the front shoulder muscles (anterior deltoid).Pulley position: Wide or narrow (Wide offers a greater challenge throughout the entire range on specific movements, especially at the top of these movements. This can make these exercises even more effective. However, when both pulley positions are listed as options, do not attempt to use the same weight for each position).

Starting position:
• Seated ion the flat bench position, reach straight behind your body, grasp the handles, and bend your elbows until your hands are near your chest. Rotate your upper arms away from your torso so that your elbows are pointing outward at each side and your palms are facing forward.
• Keeping knees bent and feet flat on the floor and straighten your arms to the straight out in front of you from your shoulders.
• Be sure that your arms are directly above the cables, palms facing upward and wrists straight.
• Raise your chest and slightly "pinch" your shoulder blades together. Maintain a very slight, comfortable arch in your lower back.Motion:
• Slowly move your arms downward and back towards the pulleys, maintaining the elbow in a slightly bent position throughout the movement.
• Stop when your upper arms are parallel or slightly behind you (your elbows will be slightly behind you).
• Slowly return to starting position keeping your chest muscles tightened during the entire motion.Key points:
• Maintain a 60-90 degree angle between the upper arms and the torso throughout the exercise.
• Limit and control the range of motion so that your elbows travel only slightly behind your shoulders if at all.
• For normal pressing/pushing patterns of movement, your shoulder blades may "float" forward and backward naturally with the arm movement. For increased pec involvement, keep the shoulder blades "pinched" together throughout both the upward and downward movements.

I have been bouncing around online for just about 20 years, so I have been there and have done that. It doesn't mean I didn't like it and wouldn't do it again. As most humans, I am a social animal. To be a social animal on the internet it is social media that binds us all together. I prefer Google + and Twitter but have pages on the other ones that I ignore, so you probably should too.

My Blogging

I blog a lot. If you don't like people that blog a lot then I don't know how you got here to begin with. You may want to just move along.

Contrary to popular opinion I hate politics, but have political opinions ..

The easiest way to get under my skin is to apply the "all you talk about is politics" tag. This is a common knee jerk reaction some have when they see something political, and unfortunately I don't hold back sometimes. As a matter of fact, I share more about health, fitness and blogging than politics, which you would know if you weren't busy dismissing me. I actually follow and interact with more people that disagree with me than agree with me politically. The list of "other than politics" seems to be growing everyday and it probably looks a lot like this: